Forever a Brother
by Flamest57
Summary: While at a college party Jack runs into the President of the Fraternity, who seems to be hiding more than he is letting on. Why does Jack see sadness in his eyes when Aster thinks that he isn't looking? It all starts with a chance meeting and sometimes the past has its way of haunting you.
1. Like seeing a Ghost

Like seeing a Ghost

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

**AN: So I went back re-read and re-wrote this chapter due to format issues that was pointed out by a reviewer. I appreciate the constructive criticism because it will make me a better writer. Pretty soon I will go back and re-write all of my stories because I love this format better anyways, there is a better flow. Anyways nothing really changed storywise. The next chapter will take some time to come out, the reason being because I think that I know where I want to go with this but having a hard time getting it started. Anyways happy reading. Also there will be fluff. **

The music was blaring and the lights were going, just another Saturday night at Delta Kappa Gamma; the party was in full swing. It was rush week or hell week for potential pledges, meaning that there were new faces hoping to get a spot in a fraternity or a sorority. In order to do so they would need to complete various tasks, mostly dares that were organized by the fraternities or sororities senior members. One such senior was Aster Bunnymund leaning on the second floor railing, he watched the scene before him with a very bored expression on his face. Every year it was the same thing why he had bothered coming back to the fraternity he had no idea. Coming out of his musings he decided to head down stairs to get a drink at least there would be no shortage of drinks in the house.

Making his way through the swaying bodies that were no longer on the dance floor, the bottom floor becoming clustered with students of all types. Everyone from freshman to seniors were there, and while the freshman were scoping out the fraternities and sororities, everyone else just there for the party. Eventually Aster made his way to the kitchen where there was an assortment of food and drinks.

Normally Aster was not one to drink alcohol but this last year has been very hard on him what with a death in the family and all; it hit him pretty badly. After a couple of minutes he had found his drink of choice, and proceeded to look for a bottle opener. The next thing that he knew he hears a crash at the front of the kitchen, and usually when there is a crash there is a possibility that some drunk had gotten hurt. With a sigh Aster set his drink down, and made his way to the front of the kitchen calling out to the poor soul that had gotten personal with the floor.

"Oi mate you okay down there?" called Aster to the body on the floor.

The next thing that he heard was a groan and when he reached the person, he froze it was as if he was seeing a ghost the kid certainly looked the part.

This was not his day at all first he gets locked out of his apartment, then his books were delivered to the wrong unit and it was a bitch to get them back from the owner of said unit. He gets dragged or rather guilt tripped to a party that he had no intention of going too, his friend ditched him at said party, and now he is currently on the floor with an audience of one who more than likely saw the whole thing.

"Oi mate you okay?" the disembodied voice asked. '_Great someone saw, what else can go wrong?'_ thought Jack.

Jack had opened his eyes and everything was fuzzy to say the least, just how hard did he hit his head anyways? As his vision was starting to clear up he had heard the voice again.

"Hey you okay down there?" At that point Jack's vision was starting to come into focus, and what filled his vision was not something that he was expecting to see. The person standing above him had the greenest eyes that he had ever seen; this person was also tan with tribal tattoos on his arms and lastly sported hair that appeared to be blue and silver being held back by a bandana. Jack looked at the young man owlishly some of the haze clearing up. Aster knelt down to Jack's level to inspect the damage, after all the fall that the younger man took was pretty hard, enough for him to hear a crack when his head hit the floor.

Once his vision cleared Jack started to get up off of the floor a little too fast for Aster's liking as he had put his hand on the younger man's chest to have him lay back down on the floor.

"Easy there mate ya went down pretty hard there" advised Aster.

"I'm fine can I get up now?" asked Jack.

"Not yet mate we're going to move through a couple of things first" Aster held up four fingers in front of Jack,

"How many fingers do you see?" asked Aster.

"I see four" replied Jack, and this went on for a couple of minutes with Aster throwing up different numbers for Jack to recite.

Next Aster lifted Jack's head slightly and felt around in the back to see if there were any injuries but there was a pretty good goose egg forming in the back of his skull, Aster did not see any blood but it didn't hurt to be sure. Once Aster deemed Jack to be okay he helped him up slowly, and made sure that he had proper footing before letting him go.

Jack got a good look at his fellow classmate and was surprised at how tall he was. Jack knew that he wasn't tall himself but this guy was definitely over six foot easy. What really caught his attention was just his appearance in general, if he had met this guy on the street he had no doubts that he would have been intimidated, but he seemed rather nice in the big brother kind of way.

Aster took a look at his fellow classmate to take in his appearance, he was kind of short but not too short; he came up to about the middle of Aster's chest. The young man had white hair and the bluest eyes that he had ever seen; he was also pretty pale. Aster had the thought that he may not be a native of the area like himself. What really caught his attention was his face, he could be identical to his late brother and they looked like they could be twins save for the hair and eyes.

Before both realized it they were staring at one another and looked away in that embarrassed fashion, Jack was the first to break the ice.

"So thanks for the help" said Jack as he had turned back to his medic.  
"It's no problem mate I'm trained in first aid and head of the house hold. If anyone is injured on the grounds it's our responsibility to take care of em" explained Aster, "So are ya rushing this year?" inquired Aster.

"No I'm not, I have a friend who heard that there was a party tonight and she needed someone to come with her. Although in the end she ended up ditching me, probably found a guy she liked "explained Jack.

"Well if it is any of my boys she'll be in good hands, what does the sheila look like?" inquired Aster.

Jack described his friend from the colorful hair to the turquoise dress that she wore right down to the shoes and jewelry.

"In other words she is very eccentric but I love her" explained Jack.

"She must be pretty important to have a friend like you" said Aster.

"She's like my older sister and one of the reasons why I came to this college, plus I heard great things about their educational program" and it went like that for the rest of the night.

The two did nothing but talk eventually moving out from the kitchen to the outdoors where a small fire sat surrounded by chairs. They talked about their pasts where they came from. Jack was surprised that Aster really did come from Australia but from a young age. His family left due to having most of their family in the US and they had wanted to be closer.

"So we have been talking for three hours and I still don't know your name" explained Jack.

"Well I'm not the only one lacking manners seeing as how I don't know your name either mate" said Aster.

"Well my name is Jackson Overland Frost, but you can call me Jack" said Jack as he properly introduced himself.

"Very well since we are being completely honest, my name is Emerson Aster Bunnymund, but I go by Aster" said Aster.

"You do realize that your name literally spells Easter Bunny right?" laughed Jack,

"Oh rack off yours is no better what kind of a middle name is Overland anyways?" asked Aster. With that both males had broken up into laughter just simply enjoying each other's company. Before they knew it they had talked for a majority of the night well into the wee hours of the morning.

Jack was the first to yawn, his body signaling his brain that it was time for sleep; it was not something that had escaped Aster's keen eyes. Aster could not help but smile at his younger companion, and the brotherly instinct that made him want to care for the younger male.

"All right mate I think that it is time that ya head home, ya seem to be pretty tired" Aster said as Jack was giving another yawn.

"Dude you are so not my mom, not that you would want to be anyways" said Jack with a laugh while trying to stifle another yawn.

'_Okay maybe the Aussie has a point I am starting to feel it' _thought Jack.

"I may not be a mother to ya but I am an older brother and one that cares ta boot" explained Aster.

"You are?" asked Jack as this new bit of information caught his attention, as he was an older brother to two younger siblings. It was another thing that the two had in common and now that Jack knew this he was starting to think that falling on the floor was fate in a way.

"Yes I am. Have a brother named Zackary although he goes by Zack for short" Aster said animatedly.

"Nice how old is he anyways?" Jack asked with an excited laugh hoping that this Zack would be similar to his own siblings.

The question had made Aster flinch but Jack being a tired as he was did not catch the melancholy expression on his new friend's face.

"He's fifteen in his sophomore year of high school," Aster explained. He purposefully left out the fact that Zack was no longer among the living. Aster did not feel like re-exploring his brother's death all over again. For once in these 6 months he wanted to live in the past.


	2. Old Friend, New Friends

Old Friend, New Friends

Disclaimer: I own nothing!

Jack looked at the offered photo and by proxy at, what appears to be, his doppelganger. The boy in the photo was about his height as he also came up to Aster's chest. He had brown hair, eyes, and a mischievous impish smile. Despite the hair, eyes, and complexion he looked exactly like Aster's brother, a real doppelganger.

"So what is your brother going to say? You know when you tell him of his twin?" asked Jack referring to himself.

"I don't know what he is going to say truthfully, if anything he may just drag you along to play pranks on people," explained Aster.

Although Aster said this with some mirth in his voice, his words did not meet his eyes. It was something that Jack was great at noticing as his younger sister did that a lot; she would pretend to be okay when she was actually hurting on the inside. This was so confusing, were they in a fight or something? Jack wanted to know but knew it was not his current place to ask. After all they were just getting to know each other and were still at a party. Not really an appropriate thing to ask someone in those types of circumstances. Jack stifled another yawn, while Aster put the photo back into his wallet.

"Before we get ya home, why don't we try to find your friend?" said Aster with a grin

"Oh shit, I completely forgot about her!" exclaimed Jack no longer tired or yawning

"Hey calm down if she is with someone we will find her, and like I said if she is with one of my boy's then she will be safe. If there is one thing that they know how to do, it is to treat a lady with decency. Now take out your phone and give her a call, if there is no answer we start looking," reasoned Aster.

Taking a deep breath Jack did exactly as he was told, took out his phone and gave his friend a call. It took three tries but the third try is always the charm, as she answered the phone; Jack breathed a sigh of relief.

"Tooth where are you?" was all that Jack could ask.

After all it is not like he could be mad at her for not checking in when he was just as guilty for not doing so. Even though this was a party and the campus was known for being safe, it doesn't hurt to use the buddy system, which they had completely ignored.

"Oh hey Jack I'm in the kitchen just talking to a couple of people. Where are you?" she asked

"I'm out back by the fire talking to the head of the household" Jack replied back to his friend.

"Why are you talking to the head of household? What did you do? Did you play a prank? Do I need to bail you out? She asked and the same types of questions just kept on coming.

Now although Jack was talking on the phone Aster could clearly hear what was being said from Jack's friends' worried tone and questions as they generally got louder and louder. You'd think that by the rapid fire questions Jack was going to jail or something.

"Tooth I will tell you later and no I did not do anything and am not in trouble, before we go into that area" explained Jack with a dead panned look on his face.

At this point Aster was laughing all of the while signaling to Jack to wrap it up so that they can meet up with this 'Tooth' as Aster recalled so that the lad could get home. Jack understood as bed and sleep sounded like a brilliant plan to him, but he would not leave without his friend.

"I'll head over so that we can get going, I don't know about you but I'm getting pretty tired and I'm sure that it's getting late," Jack explained and then hung up the phone.

On her end Tooth agreed with the sentiment as she was getting tired and the alcohol was starting to get to get to her. Although Jack was not old enough to drink yet Tooth had already turned the legal age to do so. In that sense that is why Jack was often protective of her, he saw her like she was his sister and would do anything to make sure that she is safe.

Tooth and Jack have known each other for years and she was four years older than him, and their parents were good friends. With that fact into the mix the two did almost everything together when they were younger, and as they got older they started to drift apart as life started getting in the way. That was until Tooth convinced Jack to become her roommate and come to college with her, all the while bragging about the teaching program that they had. She had missed her friend and the shenanigans that they used to get into. It was nice having someone she could trust to rely on in the household.

Jack and Aster made their way to the kitchen area where Tooth was talking to a short young man with blond hair. Now Tooth was pretty average and maybe a little on the petite side, where as the young man that she was talking too was about a head or so shorter than her. She was nodding at something that he was doing and it took Jack a second or so to realize that the young man was using sign language. Jack did not know what he was signing but recognized the movements. He was starting to learn American Sign Language himself but he still had a long way to go, whereas Tooth was fluent. Tooth saw the duo and waved them over, the young man also turned around to see whom his companion was waving too.

"Jack over here!" exclaimed Tooth happy to see what she considered to be her younger brother.

"Hey Tooth you ready to go?" Jack asked

"Yeah I'm pretty tired kind of wished that we left early so we did not have to walk home" said Tooth

"Why would ya have to walk home? Don't ya live on campus?" Aster asked and the blonde young man nodded in agreement.

"No we don't live on campus, we live a block or so away in the direction of the main entrance," Jack explained.

"Yeah we live in an apartment instead of the dorms, much more room and we can be roommates" Tooth continued the explanation.

The silent young man signed that he and Aster could give them a ride home if they would like. Both were sober enough to drive and he explained that he had wanted to make sure that his new friends got home safe. Tooth once again was able to keep up with the explanation but Jack got lost about half way through.

"Who's Aster?" Tooth asked.

"Tha' would be me," Aster offered for her just as Sandy was also going to point him out.

"Oh and you're also the head of the household that Jack mentioned? But that would make you a senior," Tooth concluded.

"Yes on both accounts Sheila Sandy and I are both seniors here at Reisner College, I run the frat and he's my VP." Aster explained.

Now this took Tooth by surprise as she figured that Sandy would be younger than her, he certainly did not look older and it had nothing to do with height. Jack introduced himself to Sandy not wanting to be rude to Tooth's new friend, the two seemed to be hitting it off pretty well before they showed up.

"So Tooth you okay with hitching a ride?" Jack asked

Jack was all for hitching a ride home, it meant that they would be there sooner and which meant that he could go to bed.

"Yeah why not, I don't feel like walking," said Tooth.

"Great it's settled then, I'll just go tell Nick that Sandy and I are going and to get my keys. I'll be back in two shakes," Aster said.

With that he walked to a big looking man and with gestures explained what he and Sandy were doing. Nick was third in line in the chain of command in the household. Nick nodded the affirmative and waved to the other three with a smile. Maybe Jack and Tooth could meet Nick and catchup one night but not tonight, they were just about dead on their feet.

While they were waiting for Aster to get back Tooth could not help but notice that Sandy kept sneaking glances at Jack. Tooth could not help but wonder why so she asked, per Sandy all that he had replied with was that Jack looked like someone he knew. Sandy kept it as simple as that and did not go into greater detail. Tooth just accepted the reasoning and chalked it up to the doppelganger theory, but she could not help but wonder where the look alike to her Jack was.

Before they knew it Aster was back with the keys and it was not long until Sandy and Aster got Jack and Tooth home. The car ride was spent in silence until they got to the apartment complex, there they bid their farewells but not before exchanging phone numbers. After that the new friends parted ways to get some much needed rest so that they may enjoy time before school started on Monday. When they got back in the car Sandy looked pointedly at Aster.

Sandy explained that Aster's brother could not be replaced, that he and Jack are their own person.

"I know Sandy, I know. It's just they are so similar and now I have to wonder if this is my punishment for my stupidity," Aster lamented

It was something that sandy had to wonder as well, after all it was more than just a run of the mill car accident.


	3. Sunday Shenanigans

Sunday Shenanigans

Disclaimer: I own nothing!

Aster was sweating profusely all of the while tossing and turning in his bed. The nightmares were back, a replay of that awful night where he had lost the one thing that he was supposed to protect. Images of rain, a car, and a river flashed before his closed eyes in rapid succession. There was just too much information to handle and it was soon after the car had hit the water did Aster wake.

He sat straight up in his bed reaching for someone that was not there. The person that was there however was now recovering from a mini heart attack. Sandy saw his friend's plight and trying to get some sleep just to be disturbed by nightmares of past events. Aster and Sandy had plans to meet up so that they may get things ready for school and classes that they both had the next day.

It was a Sunday which is often called the day of rest, something that Sandy's Aussie friend was in desperate need of but was not getting anytime soon. Aster was fully awake now only to see the stretching hand before him that he recognized as his own. Aster retracted his hands just to rub the sweat out of his face and it took him a second to realize that Sandy was standing right there.

"Oi mate, how long have you been there?" Aster asked.

"_Long enough to know that you are not sleeping well," _Sandy signed to Aster with a pointed look.

This all started the night that they had given Tooth and Jack a ride home from the party. Sandy could only speculate that Jack was the cause of it. Well maybe not Jack entirely but his appearance is definitely to blame for these series of events. When Aster initially lost his brother Zack Aster suffered from nightmares. Eventually after some therapy to deal with the loss he started to get better much to Sandy's delight but now it seems all of that hard work is simply going to waste, and Aster being the dummy that he is, is trying to hide it.

"Look mate I am fine, it was just another nightmare I will get over it" said Aster.

"_How long have they been going on this time, last time they almost destroyed your mental state! To the point where you were not sleeping and on top of that you were seeing things. So until you answer my question I will not believe you," _Sandy signed again in a frustrating manner to his long-time friend.

Aster could not argue with that because his friend was right, he did not deal with loss well and it took its toll last time. He could not let his grief come back to haunt him again, Aster might not survive a second go around at least not mentally.

"At lease since the party. At first it was jus tossin and turnin but now, as you can probably tell ya busybody, they are back," explained Aster.

Sandy took no offence to the busybody comment, as he has at least a clue as to what his friend is going through. He was there when Zack died and he was there for his friend to help with picking up the pieces. But to have the nightmares come back a little after the party confirmed Sandy's suspicion about Jack's link in all of this.

Since the party Aster and Jack have been hanging out more and more. Sometimes Sandy would join in and sometimes he would not, but he did watch from the sidelines to see how this new friendship would progress. Sandy could only hope that Aster was genuinely interested in being friends and not seeing Jack as a stand in, that would only serve to hurt them both if that was the case. But no matter how he looked at it they both seemed pretty happy with having met Tooth and Jack. Aster was the one to break Sandy from his musings by waving a hand in front of his face to get his attention.

"Yo space cadet are ya with us? What are you doin in ma room anyways?" Asked Aster.

_You have got to be kidding me did he really forget? _Thought Sandy.

"_We have things to do today, remember? School is tomorrow." _Signed Sandy with an exasperated look on his face, now he was just getting plenty of annoyed.

Aster had a sheepish look on his face, "Oh right, sorry mate guess it slipped my mind."

After that Aster got up and proceeded to get ready for the day while Sandy took a seat in a chair that was in the corner of the room. It was not long before they were ready to head on out to the town to get what they needed for the upcoming semester. Hopefully they would not run into any trouble like the last time they went to town, which resulted in a fist fight. That they lost.

Jack was sound asleep when he was woken by the smell of food, it was Sunday and school was not until tomorrow so he had hoped that he could sleep in just one more day. Too bad his stomach picked that moment to growl with its desire for the food that was cooking just beyond the door.

'_She had better have put on some coffee too," _were his only thoughts as he had gotten out of bed.

Making his way down the hall he could hear music coming from the kitchen and the smell of food and thankfully some coffee was prominent.

"Moring Tooth" Jack greeted his friend tiredly. He was most definitely not a morning person.

"Morning" Tooth pretty much sang her greeting to her friend; she was the morning person between the two.

"How did you sleep?" she asked.

"I slept okay, still getting used to my new room and the bed isn't too bad" Jack replied while fixing himself a cup of coffee, putting in copious amounts of milk and sugar.

"I don't understand how you can drink that with all of that sugar don't you know what that does to your teeth? Seriously that cannot be good for you," Tooth slightly scolded.

"And I don't understand how we can have this same conversation every morning, I like what I like and I take pretty good care of my teeth thank you very much," Jack said with a smile.

There was no animosity between them as it was their normal friendly banter to be had, it also showed that they cared.

"Well anyways breakfast is just about ready if you want to fix yourself a plate" said Tooth.

Jack wasted no time in loading up his plate after surveying what was made. There was pancakes, waffles, bacon, sausage, hash browns, biscuits, and gravy, literally a little bit of everything. A real continental breakfast courtesy of Tooth. Since Tooth made a little bit of everything Jack decided to take a little of everything. Tooth's cooking was always good, and she had been teaching him here and there how to cook so that one day he can help with the duty. The deal between them right now is that Tooth did the cooking while Jack did the cleaning in their cozy little home.

"So what do we have going on today?" asked Jack.

It was their last day before school started so Jack and Tooth decided to spend the day together living it up until they had to eventually go to bed.

"Well I was thinking that we explore the town a little bit more and maybe see a movie, although I do not know what is out yet," said Tooth.

"Nothing like being spontaneous. Whatever we do let's just make it fun, it's going to be the most that we are going to have for a while," said Jack.

After breakfast was done and the kitchen was cleaned both occupants of the small apartment headed to their respective rooms to get ready for the day. It was not long before they headed into town and found themselves at the mall window shopping and people watching.

The duo were enjoying another cup of coffee before something caught Jack's eye and that is when he saw their new friend's walking by. Who knew that they would see them outside of a rendezvous? Jack pointed the two out to Tooth who suggested that they follow them, just to have some fun to which Jack agreed to wholeheartedly.

Aster and Sandy stepped into an art supplies store in order for Aster to get his things for the upcoming semester. Little did they know that they were being followed by Tooth and Jack who had decided to keep their distance.

Nothing like spying on someone to learn more about them while in their natural habitat, they knew that Aster was an art major but it was still interesting to see someone look at different paint brushes to figure out what was needed. To them they all looked the same but to Aster they were all different in their own little way, each one serving a different purpose.

After looking at paint brushes they moved on to canvases and after that continued to look at different mediums for which to create with. Aster moved swiftly through the store gathering the things that he needed whereas Sandy stood there silently waiting for his friend to finish.

Sandy and Aster did not speak much on the way over to the mall as Aster was still waking up and slightly shaking off the nightmare that he had. Honestly there had to be something out there that prevented someone from dreaming, although not the ideal solution it would mean that his friend got some decent sleep.

While Aster was looking at paint brushes Sandy was just looking around when he thought that he saw some white hair somewhere behind them out of his peripheral. But when he looked there was nothing there. He knows that they were talking about Jack and Zack a lot but that shouldn't mean that he would be seeing the white haired boy; it must have been his imagination he mused.

They moved through the store fluidly Aster getting the things that he needed, lost in his own little world. This was his territory and Sandy could only hope that this would take his mind off of things, lord knew that his friend needed a distraction. His focus was on his friend right now, and not their new friends that they just recently met.

Aster paid for his things and the two left the store to head to the book store so that Sandy could get his share of school supplies. As they were making their way to the next stop Sandy could not help but look back periodically to see if they were still being followed, and sure enough he spotted Tooth and Jack following them at a distance. Rather than acknowledge them Sandy said nothing about the followers and continued on with Aster towards the bookstore, there he would let his companion know about the busybodies that were following them. Who knows maybe they can have some fun with this?


End file.
